


Get Well Soon

by vanilla107



Category: Hey Arnold!
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, One-Shot, Romance, hey arnold - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 07:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanilla107/pseuds/vanilla107
Summary: When Helga and Arnold both end up in detention because Helga is having a bad day she doesn't think her day can get any worse. But when Arnold collapses and Helga needs to go with him to the hospital, it does. Helga is worried about her beloved and decides to do something to cheer him up.





	Get Well Soon

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! So I'm super duper excited about the new Hey Arnold: Into the Jungle movie coming out in a few days that I just HAD to write some fanfiction about one of my favourite couples! I can't wait to see the movie and I hope you all like this! Comments and kudos are appreciated and I will write more if there's a high demand! <3

Helga G Pataki let out a frustrated groan.  

This was all _football head's_ fault.

That wasn't entirely true but hell, she needed someone to blame. At the thought of this she turned her head to look at Arnold Shortman, her beloved, who was sitting a few seats away from her.

They were both in detention.

She could see how annoyed he was with being in detention and she sighed. He just had to play hero didn't he?

It was all because she had been having a bad day.

Her sister, Olga I-am-so-great-at-everything Pataki, had come home from Atlanta last night and tried to do some ‘sisterly bonding’ which obviously hadn't worked. Olga then had the _amazing_ idea to wake her up at the _crack of dawn_ to make breakfast for her parents. So by the time she had gotten to school, she was in a foul mood and her day hadn’t gotten any better.

She had forgotten her English homework at home and seeing the disappointment on Mr. Simmons face was enough to make her feel awful. She didn’t like majority of the teachers but he was an exception. He always encouraged her and she would be lying if it didn’t motivate her to do better. By the time recess started, she just wanted to go home and sleep. Her best friend, Phoebe had already sensed that she wasn’t in the best of moods and thankfully refrained from asking questions.

The peace didn’t last long.

Harold had started to tease her to a point where she was about to sucker punch the guy when Arnold just had to jump in and try to stop her.

She would never hurt her beloved but hell, why did he have to test her? A teacher had stopped them and had seen the screaming match between her and Arnold and had given both of them detention.

Helga sighed her attention turning back to the page in front of her. Their punishment was to write an essay on ‘Why violence isn't the answer’ but she'd much rather write an essay on how the light caught her darling beloved’s golden hair or his gorgeous blue eyes.

The teacher in charge of watching them was Mr. Simmons who was marking math tests when he announced, “ Arnold, Helga, I’m just going to the photocopy room to get something. I won’t be long.”

Without another word he walked out the room and closed the door behind him and immediately Helga started talking to Arnold.

“I seriously can’t believe you Football head!”

At these words, Arnold turned his head and sighed at the bully. Helga noticed that Arnold was already done with his essay and wanted to scream.

_Why was he so perfect at everything?_

“Believe what, Helga?”

“That you’d decide to play hero! Now you’re stuck in detention too!”

She crossed he arms and glared at him.

“Helga, are you saying that I shouldn’t of stopped you?”

“Well yes! Now you’re stuck here and doing a boring essay all because you just had to stop me! Crimany! Can’t you just let me pummel a guy when I feel like it?”

Helga let out a huff of annoyance and to her surprise she saw a small smile on Arnold’s face.

“Well, violence isn’t always the answer Helga.”

“Are you just directly quoting from the essay or is that actual advice, football head?”

“Maybe, but I know that it’s unusual for you to just lash out at someone. Normally it’s an insult or witty comment but you never lash out. Are you okay?”

Helga froze. Was she really that transparent that Arnold could see how she was feeling? Did that mean he knew how she felt about him?

“Of course I’m okay! I-uh- just had a bad sleep and I ended up waking up really early!” she said confidently.

Arnold raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged his shoulders.

“Whatever you say Helga-”

Arnold’s eyes widened and he clutched his side. Helga looked at him with a confused expression.

“Football head? Are you-?”

Arnold fell to the floor and Helga screamed.

“Arnold!”

She ran to his side and broke out into a sweat. “What’s wrong with you? I don’t know what to do! Help! Somebody!”

Mr Simmons burst through the door and stared at the two ten-year olds.

“Helga, we need to take Arnold to the hospital. This doesn’t look like something the nurse can deal with. Let’s go to my car.”

********************************************

Helga gripped the cup of juice so tightly that Mr. Simmon’s was afraid that it would break. They were waiting outside Arnold’s hospital room waiting to see Arnold. She stared at the wooden door and took a sip of her juice and covered her face with her hands.

According to the doctors, Arnold had appendicitis and he had gotten severe cramps while he was in detention. The doctors had immediately taken him in for surgery and Helga nearly fainted on the spot.

“He’s not gonna die is he?” Helga had screamed as they had taken her beloved to the operating room with Mr. Simmon’s restraining her. Mr. Simmons assured her that since they had gotten him to the hospital and that his appendix was going to be removed, he would be fine.

Arnold was currently asleep and the nurse said that once he woke up, she could visit him. Helga had been waiting for an half an hour and she was getting antsy. Suddenly two figures ran down the corridor and stopped in front of Helga and Mr. Simmons.

Helga recognized them as Arnold’s grandparents, Grandpa Phil and that crazy wife of his, and she felt a little bit relieved that some of Arnold’s family was there.

“Is Arnold okay? We raced over immediately after you phoned us,” panted Grandpa Phil.

“He’s alright Mr. Shortman, Arnold had appendicitis and collapsed in detention. The doctors have already operated on him and he is currently asleep. You can visit him once he’s awake.”

“Oh thank heavens! You hear that, Pookie? Arnold is going to be right as rain!”

Grandpa Phil hugged Pookie and noticed Helga sitting silently in her chair, looking at the floor.

“Oh, this is Helga. She was with Arnold when he collapsed and called for help. She’s in a bit of a shock but was very brave. She helped me carry him to the car and was calm the entire way through,” said Mr. Simmons with a smile.

Helga didn’t feel brave. She had been shaking furiously when she carried Arnold to the car and had been on the verge of a meltdown in the car. It was a miracle that she hadn’t fainted at all.

“Well then! I thank you, Helga! That must’ve been quite a traumatic experience for you but you saved our boy!” grinned Grandpa Phil and Pookie gave Helga a bone-crushing hug.

“Can’t...breathe..!” Helga gasped and Pookie let go and giggled.

Helga gave the old couple a smile and a nurse walked out of Arnold’s room.

“Arnold is awake. You may see him now,” the nurse said with a smile and Helga ran into the room. She saw him sitting up in his bed, still looking sleepy and his hair looked ridiculous. She ran to his bed and threw her arms around him. Arnold was surprised at the sudden gesture of affection but slowly put his arms around her.

“Don’t _ever_ do that again, football head,” she whispered and felt the tears drip from her cheeks.

“Well I only had one appendix, so I promise it won’t happen again, Helga,” he said.

Arnold couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Was Helga Pataki _crying_ because she was worried about him?

Helga let go of him and stood up from his bed. He looked so small in his hospital gown and he had an IV drip attached to his arm.

“I think I need to sleep for a thousand years because I’m exhausted,” murmured Helga and Grandpa Phil put a hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you for caring about our boy, Helga. It’s late and I think you should be getting home. Do you want us to drop you off at home?”

“It’s okay. You spend time with football- I mean- Arnold. Mr. Simmons can take me home.”

Mr. Simmons nodded and they said their goodbyes.

**************************************************

The school was a buzz of news the next day because of Arnold being in the hospital.

Helga had found out from Phoebe that Arnold had to stay at the hospital overnight to recover and naturally, if people didn’t know the full story of events….they tended to get a little twisted. She had heard many different stories about Arnold. The one that he had been attacked by an intruder after school and had to be rushed to hospital was currently the most ridiculous one and Helga chuckled to herself. She was planning to visit him after school to just check how he was doing.

“Class, there’s a math test tomorrow, so please study hard!” said Mr. Simmons as he handed out revision worksheets. There was wave of disappointed groans.

“Darn it, I was planning to visit Arnold after school but I have to study for this test. I can’t fail math,” groaned Gerald.

Helga sat up and felt a little sorry for Gerald. He just wanted to visit his friend but now he couldn’t because of the test. She sighed and nudged Phoebe.

“Hey, hair boy!” she whispered to Gerald. He groaned and turned to face her.

“What do you want?” he asked. Helga rolled her eyes.

“Listen up, I’m planning to visit football- Arnold after school so if you want...you can make him a card and I’ll give it to him.”

Gerald’s eyes widened and he looked at her as if she’d grown a second head.

“What? Why would you visit him?”

“Ugh, I was with him when he collapsed okay? He had appendicitis and I helped. Can you blame me for want to see if he’s okay since I literally had no idea what was wrong with him and thought he was dying?” Helga said in a whole breath.

“Wait..you were there?!” Gerald exclaimed.

Helga ran her hand down her face and took a deep breath.

“Are you going to make him a card or not, hair boy?”

Gerald nodded slowly and Helga grinned.

“Oh and I’m sure Phoebe can help you study for the test tomorrow, right Pheebs?” Helga nudged her small friend who had gone a brilliant red.

“Y-yeah, s-sure!”

Gerald grinned and Helga noticed the blush on his cheeks.

“Have that card ready by the end of today, otherwise no card for Arnold.”

****************************************************

Arnold’s jaw dropped when he saw Helga stroll into his hospital room with her arms full of cards and flowers. He also noticed the ‘GET WELL SOON’ balloon tied around her wrist and the how out of breath she was.

“Helga- what is this?”

Helga dumped the cards on his bed and put the flowers on the desk next to his bed.

“I swear you have way too many friends,” she groaned as she untied the balloon and tied it to the bed and looked at him.

Gerald had told their whole class that a ‘messenger’ was going to take get well soon cards to Arnold after school since they all had to study math and the whole class had immediately started working on their cards. Helga was happy that he didn’t mention her. The last thing she needed was the class teasing her about caring. When Gerald handed Helga more than thirty cards all from students and teachers as well as flowers and a balloon she thought the delivery would be impossible. Thankfully she had managed.

“So? Read them!” she huffed and sat down at the end of the bed.

Arnold looked at all the cards and picked up the first one he saw. It was from Gerald. And the next one was from Lila then Eugene then Rhonda then Phoebe and- he had received cards from almost everyone he knew. He read each one, his smile growing bigger and bigger. Once he had finished the last one he looked at Helga.

“Helga this is….thank you.”

“Well you should thank your friends. We have a math test tomorrow so most of them couldn’t visit you so I told them to make cards instead.”

Arnold was silent.

“But...why would you visit me? I thought you hated me?”

Helga froze and she mentally slapped herself.

“I-I was worried okay? I went through a really traumatising experience yesterday football head and I had no idea what appendicitis was until the doctors said so! I thought you were dying! Can you blame me for being worried? I mean who would I call football head if you died, right? Hahah,” she laughed nervously.

Arnold stared at her before smiling.

“But...you just said that there’s a math test tomorrow...don’t you need to study?”

Helga glared at Arnold, the faintest blush on her cheeks.

“Arnold can you just leave the situation alone and read all your cards otherwise I’ll hit you so hard you’ll need another surgery.”

“Okay, Helga,” he said with a smile.

The nurse came in with a bowl of soup and Helga ushered her out.

Helga watched as Arnold started to eat but she noticed he was having difficulty.

“Jeez, if you want help just ask football head.”

She scooted closer to him and took the bowl and spoon in her hands. She scooped up a small amount of soup and blew on it before stopping the soup in front of his mouth. He opened his mouth and closed it around the spoon and ate the soup. Helga repeated the process until the soup was all eaten and she put the bowl on the side.

Arnold noticed a pink card on his bed that he hadn’t read yet and picked it up.

“I missed one...it’s really pretty,” he murmured as he opened it and Helga nearly fell off the bed.

“Arnold no-! Don’t read it-!”

Arnold had already opened the card and his eyes widened as he began to read out loud.

_Arnold._

_I can’t believe you have so many people that care about you. It’s actually sickening._

_Anyway, I’m happy you’re feeling better. It was scary going through that experience with you yesterday and I guess I’m happy you’ll be back at school in no time. It’s really boring without you. I suppose I do care about you...a little. I mean I decided to not study for math to visit you instead but you’ll probably never read this, since I’ll burn it after I visit you._

_Good to see you again, Arnold._

_Love Helga_

Arnold looked at Helga who was dying internally.

“That...fell out of my p-pocket and y-you were n-never supposed t-to read i-it.”

Arnold was silent and Helga wanted him to say something, anything.

“I knew you cared….deep down. Thank you for all of this Helga.”

He gently crawled to the end of the bed and hugged her.

“Thank you,” he repeated and Helga slowly put her arms around him. The hug lasted a good two minutes and the sun was just starting to set, bathing the hospital in golden warmth.

After the hug, Helga cleared her throat.

“Well Arnold if any of this- _and I mean any of this_ \- gets back to the gang at school...you’ll wish you had appendicitis all over again,” she threatened but she knew that she was blushing.

Arnold grinned.

“Whatever you say Helga, whatever you say.”


End file.
